We travelled to Borneo for a combined diving and jungle sightseeing vacaition. As such Semporna is the pit stop before you get out to the star locations of Kapalai,Sipadan and Mabul.

We booked our trip through a dive operator in Sweden and Scuba Junkies was our dive operator in Borneo. They picked us up from the airport at Tawau and drove us to Semporna where we checked in at Dragon Inn floating hotel (DI). The pictures on the web do look much better than reality, mainly because the pictures do not show all the run down facilities around the harbour. We were well received at DI and have no negative things to say about DI except that food at the restaurant can be skipped there are better places.

Rooms and facilities, We had a whole chalet on stilts for our self and those rooms are spacious, bathroom and shower is in a adjoining room to the bedroom which has aircon. Bathroom and shower does not have any aircon which keeps it warm and nice.
Everything is made of wood and as such gives a dark feel to the rooms since lights are few and not so strong.

If you book DI do not expect, carpeting and airconditioned shower and WC, actually we enjoyed this better than a "normal" hotel since aircon keeps rooms a bit too chilly normally (good for sleeping) The sounds, fragrances and feel of the accommodation felt exotic. While we stayed at DI several sections were refurbished.

The staff behind the counter were always professional and curtious, a good idea is to learn some basic phrases in malay and have some patience.

Food and dining
The restaurant on the bridge on the way to Scuba Junkie is recommended as well the food at the evening market.
One strategy is to buy 4-5 courses and try what you like and learn that way. One co-diver bought a Barracuda at the market and payed the chef at the chinese restaurant next to scuba junkie to prepare it. End result was excellent and cheap.

If you travel to semporna know that it is closer to roughing it than most larger cities. Get to the islands as fast as you can since they are just beautiful.

Local tips
Go to the Scuba junkies bar and restaurant and sit down at the bar, say Hi and cheers - after that you can ask about semporna and borneo and get some inside tips.